When you think of chainsaws in construction work, your mind usually goes to builders of log homes, pole barns, docks, fences, and perhaps timber framers. But I dug a little deeper and found them used in demolition, vintage wood salvage and reuse, panel home building, sculptural stair and railing making, woodcarving, and even in general framing and roofing operations.

In my survey of uses, perhaps the best framing trick is to use a chainsaw for cutting out window and door openings. Especially on thick walls where it is hard to cut straight with a long blade on a recip saw, guiding a chainsaw's bar along the framing will ensure a flush cut. Just be sure there are no protruding nails.

Chainsaws' plunge-cutting abilities have them cutting quick roof vents out for some guys. Different aftermarket saw bases and accessories are available for clamping onto a chainsaw's bar for uses such as gang-cutting deep rafters at a uniform angle, square cross-cutting, making angle or compound angle cuts in timbers, and even for guiding long rip cuts.

While not known for the smoothest finish cuts, chainsaws are accurate enough for the easy cutting of large LVL and glulam ridge beams without having to flip them over. And remodelers and roofers, how many times have you cut tree branches back with the wrong saw?

Using a puddling stick to consolidate grout is no longer acceptable in most building codes. Changing codes now require that grout pours greater than 12 inches be both consolidated and reconsolidated by mechanical vibration.